La sezione “Adolescenza” del Manuale Diagnostico Psicodinamico (PDM-3): da un approccio basato sul sintomo a un approccio evolutivamente informato rivolto alla persona nel trattamento dei disturbi depressivi

The “Adolescence” Section of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-3): From a Symptom-Based to a Developmentally Informed, Person-Centered Approach in the Treatment of Depressive Disorders. While the most widely used international nosographic systems, the DSM and ICD, are based on a descriptive and atheoretical approach to psychopathology that is relatively insensitive to the specific features of different life stages, the new edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-3) promotes a person-centered, multidimensional, and developmentally informed model of diagnosis, aimed at integrating a nomothetic perspective with an idiographic understanding of the patient’s psychological functioning. In this contribution, the author presents the new “Adolescence” section of the PDM-3, with a particular focus on mood disorders. Through the discussion of a clinical case, the paper highlights the importance of a psychodynamic framework for understanding depressive disorders within the context of adolescents’ mental functioning and emerging personality profiles, which provides an essential foundation for planning patient-tailored and effective treatments.